Unfilled Jobs Slow Local Economy

April 14, 2008 - 10:56am

Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - The region's growing shortage of workers is compounded by the area's lack of affordable housing, a local economist says.

"Workers can't move here, if they can't sell their house somewhere else," says Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Fuller says because the region is the fourth most expensive housing market in the nation, some 300,000 people who can't afford to live here, and they commute in, clogging area roads.

High priced counties -- including Fairfax and Loudoun in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland -- may not realize the severity of the shortage of workers. That shortage affects health care, building maintenance and other service sector jobs.

"I think it's a growing crisis."

While the region adds 28,000 jobs a year, Fuller says the number of unfilled jobs is not counted. He says that translates into lost economic opportunities because that work is transferred out of the region.

"If we can't fill a job, it's work that doesn't get done. It slows our economy. It makes us weaker. The availability of workers, the shortage of workers is critical."

Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - The region's growing shortage of workers is compounded by the area's lack of affordable housing, a local economist says.

"Workers can't move here, if they can't sell their house somewhere else," says Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Fuller says because the region is the fourth most expensive housing market in the nation, some 300,000 people who can't afford to live here, and they commute in, clogging area roads.

"I think it's a growing crisis."

"If we can't fill a job, it's work that doesn't get done. It slows our economy. It makes us weaker. The availability of workers, the shortage of workers is critical."

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